The Official Murray Chass announcement

Murray Chass, whose byline appeared in this newspaper some 8,000 times >over nearly 40 years, has decided to retire from the Times.
>
>Murray, who began covering baseball in 1962 and joined the Times in 1969, >revolutionized coverage of the sport by daring to go beyond the >on-the-field action and report on its business and labor issues. Along the >way, he established a well-deserved reputation as a tenacious reporter who >viewed each day as a journalistic challenge. The tougher the story, the >more determined he was to get it. Chances were good that he did.
>
>As Dave Anderson once put it, "I'd hate to be the President of the United >States if Murray were covering the White House."
>
>Murray earned the highest honor of the Baseball Writers of America in 2003 >when he was chosen as the winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award and >inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame the following summer. In his >speech during the induction ceremony, Murray neatly summarized his >approach to sports journalism: "What happens off the field is part of the >game. That challenged me as a reporter. I always viewed myself as a >reporter who happened to be covering baseball."
>
>As anyone who knows him can attest, he established a new standard for >sportswriters and held to it himself. We wish him great health and happiness.
>
>Tom / Sandy

Moddy (or anybody), who were the Tom/Sandy people who made that announcement? I am glad they did, though, but I still think The Times will some day regret letting Murray go. I'm predicting he will break a major baseball story on his own website some time, and The Times can go to their corner and cry.